​Grain Valley annual youth summer softball camp doubles in numbers in 2025

by Michael Smith, Grain Valley News


When Grain Valley head softball coach Flip Courter arrived at the district for his first year, there was not a summer youth camp.

He joined then head coach Garrett Ogle as an assist that season before being named the head coach in 2023. In his first season leading the softball program, Courter wanted to bring back youth camps for the summer to get more children involved from Kindergarten through eighth grade.

“When I got hired to take over as the head coach, I thought one of the first things we needed to do was to bring back the youth camp, Courter said. “They have done it in the past, and I don’t know if it was a COVID thing that led to it not being done.”

This year’s youth camp ran from July 22-24 and it was the most successful one yet of the three run by Courter. In 2023, Courter said he had about 30 players attend the camp, in 2024, that number increased to 44. But this year, the numbers of campers ballooned all the way up to 107.

“This week happens to be the summer before we have before dead week that has the least number of tournaments that would take a lot of our kids,” Courter said. “This is the opportunity to get the most kids here.

Courter noted that it helped that the high school experienced so much success in the 2024 season as the Eagles finished with a program-best 33-3 record and were ranked No. 1 in Class 5 in Missouri for most of the season.

“We promote through the schools, and we talk about it. We promote in on social media and the school website. I think the year we had last year has been attracting more kids to come out. We had the national ranking for the first time. I think kids looked and that and thought, ‘Hey, we want to be a part of that, too.’”

Courter split the campers into two groups – kindergarten through fifth grade and sixth through eighth grade.

For the elementary aged campers, he has them hit off tees, work on bunting and running to first base. He also allows them to experience pitching for the first time for those who want to try it.

For the middle school campers, they worked on more advanced level skills such as hitting off a pitching machine and soft toss, fielding in the infield and outfield and they play in scrimmages with the players pitching.

“You’re a fourth or a fifth grader and get to try some of this stuff out and think, ‘In a few years I get to play on this field,’ Courter said. “’I get to hit off that machine. I get to wear those uniforms.’ We want to get these girls into softball in general.”

For eighth grader Nova Hober, the camp gives her a chance to sharpen her skills and gives her the experience of what practices will be like at the high school level.

“I learn new things and I refresh my skills on things I have learned in the past.” Hober said. “Today I kind of hitting off the machine. I need to work on that more.”

Some of the high school varsity and junior varsity players help out with the camp by helping to organize the drills and scrimmages. They also serve as secondary coaches and help the younger campers with their mechanics while taking batting practice and their kills fielding the ball on defense.

“I am like a coach,” Grain Valley sophomore Abe Scott said. “I like helping all the kids out, especially the younger ones. Some of them are just now learning how to do softball. It’s nice.”

Senior Ashlynn McConnell had similar sentiments as Scott.

“I like talking to the girls and getting different perspectives,” McConnell said. “I love talking to little kids.”
 

Photo credit: Michael Smith, Grain Valley News
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